The many lives of Saint Alexis: Old French texts, contexts, and intertexts

499 Pages·1998·18.62 MB·English

by  Lisa Bansen-Harp

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THE WARY LIVES CF SAINT ALEXIS:

OED FRENCH TEXTS, CONTEXTS, AND INTERTEXTS

Lisa Bansen-Rarp

Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree
Docter of Philosophy
in the Department of French and Italien
‘Indiana University

August, 1998
UM Number: 9907328

Copyright 1998 by
Baasen-Harp, Liga Anne

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Date of Oral Bxamination: august 3, 1998
© 1998
Lisa Bansen-Harp

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
For Steve, who so richly deserves it,

and for Sarah and Marie
In 1872, Gaston Parts and Lécpeld Pannier published ba

Yie de saint Alexis, poéme du Kle siscis. st xeuouvellement:

des Kile, XIcJe, ¢7.xIv/e eigciea. In his preface, Paris
promised chat he and his colleagues would scon produce a

second volume devored ro studies of these and other old

rench versivns of the scory of Saint Alexis. That volume
never apreared.
The subjecl vf the present study is the Alexis textual

tradition in Old French. It i not the one thac Paris and

his veam would have weilten. The critical gerspective is

fundamentally differen:. Paris used the vie de saint Alexis

to demongsrate a new, “sciea::fic" approach to the edition
of Old French texts. Hie geal was to reconstruct the
Urhext, the original conpasition, by comparing the various
copies and veraions of the poe and choosing the best
textual Lessons they offered. He used the twelfLh-century

Hildeshein manuscrigs as his vase Lext, believing it 0 be

the closest represenc:

composition. publishing the later, related versions, be

implicitly recognized that the continuous zradition had a
significance beyond its usefulness as a source of variant
readings. He did act, however, articulate that
significance. Nor have scholars done so in the many Alexis

studies that have appeared since Pazis‘s day.
Alexis textual sradizion. The body of Alexis texts offers

us access to important aspects of medieval culture. -L

underscores shifts in medieva’ conceptions af spiriluality

and devotion. It points to Lhe imporlance of the ascetic

model in medieval life and literes!

recognize the cultural aud lite:

ry inporzance of the
hagiographical genre. Tz allows us to trace shifts in the
velacionship between Literary form and function wichir this
essential genre. It afforda us perspective on the medieval
neaning--and or. the nodern significanse--of the Hildesheim
Vie de saint Alexis, a work that by virtue of its enduring
poetic power Aas assumed an unconzested place in the

iterary canon of the French Middle Ages

my approach :o the Alexis tradition, the inspiration
of several fairly recent scholarly currenzs converges with
che inspiration of the Old french texts. The genucal
influence of “New Eistoricisn™ in literary studies warks che
present. study throughout. :t is grounded most particularly

in the work on hagicgraphy and the cult of the saincs that

has flourished in the past quarter century. The scholarship
of social and cultural historians such as Peter Brown, Derek
Bacer, Rudolph Bell, Caroline Walker Bynun, Giles Constable,
Sharon Parmer, Michael Goodich, Thomas Head, Thomas

Heffernan, André Veuchez and many others was vital
informing the early stages of my examination of the alexis

Studies on

medieval literacy, on modes of textual diffusion, and on

reader rece:

jon were equally important in shaping my
approach, which owes much to che work of Macy Carcuthers,
Brian Stock, Franz Baul, Joyce Coleman, Walter Ong, dans
Robert Jauss, and Wolfgang Ise. My inguizy was oriented in

directions new to Alexis studies by the renewed emphasis on

the textual and cultural relativicy of medieval texts, and
by che recent interest in masuscript studies--waat Keith
Busby has termed ‘the New Codicology." among the scholars

@zawn in chis connection are Julia

upor whose work T 3
Boffey, Gerald Bruns, Gernard Cerquigiini, Pamela Gehrke,

Sylvia Kuor, Barhara Shailor, and John 3. Thompson

During the sesearching and writing of this
Gissestation, T benefitted from che help and support of a
nuniber ef institutions and individuals. the National
Endownene fer the Humanities provided a year-long

Sissercal go much further in ay

n grant that allowed m=

codicolegical exploracions than would otherwise have been

possible, Grante-in-aid from the indiana Universizy
Graduate School paid for part of Lhe wicrofilms that allowed
that work to continue, while travel grants from the Graduate
School and from the Department of French and Italian helped
defray the expense cf presenting different aspects of the

work in progress at the Congress on Medieval Studies in